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The Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF), the quadrennial event's global governing body, is aiming to announce a new host for CWG 2026 next month, stating it has ‘multiple proposals’ to replace Australia’s Victoria state. The proposals will be kept confidential as per the CGF.
Notably, the Australian state of Victoria was announced as the host in April 2022. However, in July 2023, due to the escalating costs, the Victoria state government announced it had cancelled its plans to host the upcoming 2026 Games in three regional hubs.
“Significant progress has been made and we are excited by the early concepts, which aim to reset and reframe the Games. We are working collaboratively with the relevant (members) to undertake further detailed assessments, and aim to announce the 2026 Commonwealth Games host in May,” the CGF said in a statement after the conclusion of its April meeting.
It’s important to note that in August 2023, Victoria agreed to pay the CWG bodies $380 million as compensation after cancelling the 2026 event.
Furthermore, Australia’s Gold Coast, which hosted the 2018 CWG event, was also flagged as a potential host for the coming event. But in December 2023, they withdrew their interest as they failed to get state or federal funding.
Additionally, the CGF emphasized that it was focusing on transforming the Games to be cost-efficient and more sustainable. So far, the CGF has staged its events in Australia, Canada, India, Jamaica, Malaysia, New Zealand, Scotland, and Wales since its inception in 1930.
The new search for a host continues
Subsequently, in December 2023, Mayor of London Sadiq Khan stated he was ready to support the London bid as the host. However, they couldn’t take the next step, citing there was no financial appetite or any preliminary planning in place to allow the British city to intervene again in the event.
In March 2024, the Olympic Council of Malaysia confirmed that CGF offered Malaysia £100 million to host the event on a smaller scale. However, the Cabinet of Malaysia declined the invitation.
In the same month, the Commonwealth Games Singapore (CGS), the Singapore National Olympic Council (SNOC), and Sport Singapore (SportSG) confirmed that they were looking into the feasibility of hosting the games after being invited by the CGF.
However, in April 2024, CGS and SportSG announced that they wouldn’t be making any bid to host the Games.
